Golf Ads ensured no holiday ‘down time’ for brands

Corporate South Africa may have shut down over the holiday season, but for brands wanting to continue speaking to a targeted audience, Golf Ads™ continued offering an effective solution over a time period when most traditional advertising often misses the mark.

Golf Ads™ has an innovative product portfolio with a presence at 80 key golf courses across South Africa, with an average audience of over 475,000 high income earners a month.

This portfolio is made up of ballwashers, traditional clocks, mini billboards, Golf TV, Golf Ads™ and Golf Ads™ activations. Each of these media platforms are strategically located to maximise engagement, whilst the environment allows for geographical targeting where a brand can focus on a specific zone. When it comes to the proverbial 19th hole, Golf Ads™ provides opportunities within a number of hospitality and entertainment zones at certain clubs. Bar Ads™ are strategically placed in bar areas and offer illuminated permanent branding for liquor and lifestyle brands, ensuring exceptional exposure.

“Advertisers find Golf Ads™ an attractive marketing platform, largely due to the captive audience it offers, along with the fact that it’s an audience consisting of high net worth individuals, in a relaxed and receptive state of mind, and in a clutter-free environment,” says Golf Ads™ Director Johan Scholtz.

That becomes an even more focused offering over the holiday period – from early December to late January – with much of the country’s population migrating to South Africa’s vacation towns and cities. One of the popular pursuits during this time for high net worth individuals is golf. That means a significant increase in traffic across the country’s golf courses, and thus, significantly more eyeballs on the various advertising platforms.

There was exciting news in the golfing world toward the end of the year with the announcement that the SA Open was merging with the Joburg Open. The South African Open was played at Randpark Golf Club, where Golf Ads holds exclusive advertising rights, from December 6-9, 2018. This was followed by the news that another flagship South African golf tournament, the Alfred Dunhill Championship would be returning to Leopard Creek in December 2018 following the completion of the extensive improvements to the course. These high profile events attracted large numbers of spectators, adding increased reach for brands advertising on these courses.

Approximately 3.65 million rounds of golf are played in South Africa every year. That equates to almost 10,000 rounds per day, with that number increasing during the holiday period. December is traditionally the busiest month for South Africa’s golfers, with on average approximately 340,000 rounds recorded, followed by January, March and then April.

Further to that, 29,7% of South Africa’s registered golfers fall into the 35-49 age bracket, whilst interestingly, golf is taking off with the rising black middle and upper classes, making it a good fit for brands wanting to speak to these segments.

Global interest in golf has also increased significantly, with the latest data showing that 24% of 18-64 year-old adults around the world have an interest in golf – an increase of 9% over the past four years – according to Mindshare.

Golf tends to attract affluent consumers – decision makers – and Golf Ads™ has developed a suite of products that are able to speak directly to that demographic. If one considers that the average round (18 holes) of golf takes approximately four-and-a-half hours – not taking into account a break at halfway and a post-round drink – and that 36 seconds is the average pace of play, per golfer, per stroke, that’s a significant amount of dwell time to consume well thought out and creative messaging.

Paving the way for even greater engagement and exposure, Golf Ads has developed a suit of packages to assist brands in achieving effective repetitive reach within these consumer segments. These selected packages consist of a grouping of various Golf Ads products at a special rates, purposely designed to provide advertisers with greater ROI on their marketing spend.

For more information on how your brand can benefit from exposure on the golf course, contact Golf Ads™ on 0861 776 826 or go to www.golf-ads.co.za